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The same season that Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson took it virtually upon themselves to help save Turner Classic Movies following a series of layoffs that was pointing to what could have been its demise, the trio are showing just how hands-on they’ll be. For September, the trio has each compiled a list of recommendations that will air on TCM throughout the month. From melodramas and film noirs to tantalizing tales and giant ants, let’s see what Spielberg, Scorsese and PTA have to recommend.

Steven Spielberg’s September TCM picks are: Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life (1959), the sci-fi monster movie Them! (1954), Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man (1956), and two Vincente Minnelli films, musical Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).

Martin Scorsese went a bit more obscure for his TCM picks, selecting British drama Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945), pre-code...

Following David Zaslav’s despicable gutting of Turner Classic Movies earlier this summer––one of many anti-art maneuvers the money-hungry Warner Bros. Discovery CEO and president has commandeered in his embarrassing, hopefully short-lived tenure––he hoped to curry some favor by bringing together the holy trinity of filmmakers to guide the future of the channel. Now, after a few weeks on the job of “network advisors,” Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Paul Thomas Anderson have shared their picks of what to see on the channel this month.

The first two mentioned filmmakers provided videos of their recommendations, with the Killers of the Flower Moon director recommending the Boris Karloff-led Isle of the Dead, Two Sisters from Boston, Victor Fleming’s melodrama Red Dust, and Joseph Losey’s Accident.

Spielberg recommends a pair of Vincente Minnelli films, Meet Me in St. Louis and The Bad and the Beautiful, Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life,...

Top box office movies of 2013: If you make original, quality films… (photo: Sandra Bullock has two movies among the top 15 box office hits of 2013; Bullock is seen here in ‘The Heat,’ with Melissa McCarthy) (See previous post: “2013 Box Office Record? History is Remade If a Few ‘Minor Details’ Ignored.”) As further evidence that moviegoers want original, quality entertainment, below you’ll find a list of the top 15 movies at the domestic box office in 2013 — nine of which are sequels or reboots (ten if you include Oz the Great and Powerful), and more than half of which are 3D releases. Disney and Warner Bros. were the two top studios in 2013. Disney has five movies among the top 15; Warners has three. With the exception of the sleeper blockbuster Gravity, which, however dumbed down, targeted a more mature audience, every single one of the titles below were aimed either at teenagers/very,...

‘The Deanna Durbin Unit’ (photo: Robert Cummings, Deanna Durbin, and Charles Laughton in It Started with Eve) [See previous post: "Deanna Durbin Movies Save Universal."] Deanna Durbin and Henry Koster, who has been credited with helping to mold Durbin’s screen persona, collaborated on five movies. Besides Three Smart Girls, there was the inevitable sequel, Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), in addition to One Hundred Men and a Girl, after which Durbin’s salary was reportedly doubled to $3,000 per week, plus a $10,000 bonus per film; the Cinderella-like First Love (1939), in which, following worldwide publicity, Durbin gets kissed on screen for the first time (Robert Stack was the kisser); Spring Parade (1940), with a Viennese setting and Robert Cummings as her leading man; and It Started with Eve (1941), a light, well-received romantic comedy co-starring Cummings and Charles Laughton. (Universal would also release the 1964 remake, I’d Rather Be Rich, starring Sandra Dee in the Robert Cummings role, Robert Goulet in the Deanna Durbin part,...

Kathryn Grayson on TCM Schedule and synopses from the TCM website: 3:00 Am Seven Sweethearts (1942) A father insists that his seven daughters marry in order, from eldest to youngest. Cast: Kathryn Grayson, Van Heflin, S.Z. Sakall. Dir: Frank Borzage. Bw-98 mins. 4:48 Am Short Film: We Must Have Music (1941) Bw-11 mins. 5:00 Am Andy Hardy’s Private Secretary (1941) On the verge of graduation, a high-school boy decides he needs a social secretary. Cast: Mickey Rooney, Lewis Stone, Kathryn Grayson. Dir: George B. Seitz. Bw-101 mins. 7:00 Am Two Sisters From Boston (1946) Two girls with Broadway aspirations find work in a Bowery saloon. Cast: June Allyson, Kathryn Grayson, Jimmy Durante. Dir: Henry Koster. Bw-112 mins. 9:00 Am Anchors Aweigh (1945) A pair of sailors on leave try to help a movie extra become a singing star. Cast: Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Kathryn Grayson. Dir: George Sidney. C-139 mins. 11:30 [...]...

Kathryn Grayson, the lilting soprano who starred in the classic MGM musicals "Show Boat," "Kiss Me Kate" and "Anchors Aweigh," died Wednesday at her Los Angeles home. She turned 88 last week.Grayson's longtime companion and secretary, Sally Sherman, said Thursday that the actress died of natural causes.Grayson also was professionally linked with Howard Keel, with whom she co-starred in three movies. With him, Grayson sang and acted as the riverboat belle Magnolia in "Show Boat" (1951); as a Parisian dress shop owner in "Lovely to Look At" (1952) -- in which she sang Jerome Kern's "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" -- and as a high-strung actress in "Kiss Me Kate" (1953). Later in their careers, Grayson and Keel performed together in nightclubs -- she was a coloratura soprano, he was a baritone -- and toured in summer stock.Born as Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick on Feb. 9, 1922, in Winston-Salem, N.C., she...

Kathryn Grayson, the lilting soprano who starred in the classic MGM musicals "Show Boat," "Kiss Me Kate" and "Anchors Aweigh," died Wednesday at her Los Angeles home. She turned 88 last week.

Grayson's longtime companion and secretary, Sally Sherman, said Thursday that the actress died of natural causes.

Grayson also was professionally linked with Howard Keel, with whom she co-starred in three movies. With him, Grayson sang and acted as the riverboat belle Magnolia in "Show Boat" (1951); as a Parisian dress shop owner in "Lovely to Look At" (1952) -- in which she sang Jerome Kern's "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" -- and as a high-strung actress in "Kiss Me Kate" (1953).

Later in their careers, Grayson and Keel performed together in nightclubs -- she was a coloratura soprano, he was a baritone -- and toured in summer stock.

Born as Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick on Feb. 9, 1922, in Winston-Salem, N.C., she...